


Death Toll

by scruffandyarn



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Gen, Mental Hospitals, djinn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-10
Updated: 2016-04-10
Packaged: 2018-06-01 12:49:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6520441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scruffandyarn/pseuds/scruffandyarn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So, idk where this actually came from.  Just an idea that popped into my head at a really random time.  Kind of a ‘what if the show ended like this’ piece.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Death Toll

Dean groaned as he struggled to right himself, only to realize he was completely incapable of movement.  Through the haze he felt taking over his mind, he tried to mentally assess the damage that had been done to him.

_Some sort of head trauma._

_Blood loss was a given._  

Had he broken something?  He wasn’t sure.  Everything seemed to be numb.  Had he gone and gotten himself paralyzed?  He was getting too old for this.

Sam would lose his shit.

_Sam._

Where the fuck was Sam?

He tried to open his mouth to call out to his brother, but even his lips weren’t working.  What the fuck was he supposed to–

_Cas!_

Cas could get here and heal him.  Now that Lucifer was no longer using Cas as a vessel and God had finally shown up and taken care of all that shit with his sister, Cas was back to full strength.  

_Cas, I need your help, buddy.  I think I really screwed up this time.  If you could just–_

A whisper of movement stilled Dean’s thoughts.  Slowly, he opened his eyes.

What the fuck?

He’d been fighting demons in a suburban two-story, thrown from the top floor, just to land with a sickening thud against the hardwood floor of the kitchen.  How the hell did he end up hanging from the rafters in what looked to be some abandoned old warehouse?

_Cas, please–_

Another flutter, and blue eyes met his green ones.

The feeling of relief was short lived, however, when Dean realized those eyes weren’t the same shade as Cas’s.  They seemed to glow, like nothing he’d ever seen before.

No.  Scratch that.  He’d seen those before.  But that had been a dream, _right?_

* * *

He watched as the green-eyed hunter’s eyes closed again, this time for good.  

Finally.

That had been close.  If he’d been just a few seconds later in tweaking the dream-land he’d put the man in, the hunter would have actually stabbed himself. 

He should have known better than to give a hunter the perfect life.  With how much they knew, the world of monsters and demons would still seep through.  Good thing he caught on to the hunter’s plan to wake himself up.  Once he realized what was happening, all he’d had to do was let the man’s imagination wander, constructing a darker ‘reality’ than he’d thought possible, with the apocalypse and death and…

He shook his head.  The human mind would always be a mystery to him.  Why this man had chosen to dream about such horrors when he could have lived in a fantasy come true was beyond him.

Thankfully, the blood tasted the same, no matter how psychotic the source.

* * *

“Are you finished?” You looked over the half-eaten hamburger before turning to frown at your patient.  

He seemed to be looking at you, but the glaze over his eyes told you he was looking somewhere far beyond.  Poor guy.  With each passing day, it seemed to be happening more and more.

“My brother makes the best hamburgers.”

“Mr. Winchester?” You placed your hand on his shoulder, hoping the physical contact would snap him back.  “Sam?”

He blinked rapidly for several moments before finally coming back to himself.  “I found him, you know.”

“Found who?”  You turned back to begin collecting the tray of food.

“My brother.  He was dead by the time I got there.” He ran his tongue across his bottom lip.  “He was stronger than me.  Better than me.  He was a good man.  A great man.  I just–if I had just gotten there sooner.”  He looked up at you with tears in his eyes.

You sighed and placed your hand on his shoulder again.  You knew better than this.  You weren’t supposed to let them get to you.

“If he’s as great as you say, then I’m sure he forgave you for not getting there in time.”

The tears that had lingered in his eyes finally began to tumble down his cheeks.  He nodded, his long, graying hair falling across his face.  “Hope so.”

“You ready for your meds, Mr. Winchester?”

He nodded again and wiped his eyes.

“Alright.  I’ll be right back.”  You headed for the door, the tray of partially-eaten food in your hands.  “It’s going to be OK.”

He heaved out a shaky sigh before reclining back on his bed.  “Watch out for the shifters.”

You bit your lip.  “I’ll do that.”

.

As soon as the door closed behind you, a fellow nurse happened to step out into the hall.  “Winchester?”

You nodded.  “Need to get his meds.”

“Right.”  He paused.  “What was it today?”

“Shifters.”  You shrugged.  Yesterday, it had been werewolves.

“You can’t let ‘em get to you.”

You looked back through the window and sighed.  “I know.  I just–I know I wasn’t here when he first came in, but was he always this bad?”

He shook his head.  “Worse.  Used to be convinced that we were monsters he needed to kill.”

You’d read the files.  He’d been admitted when he was just twenty-four, swearing up and down that something called a ‘gin’ had killed his brother.  At first, he’d been violent towards all the staff, believing them to be different types of creatures you remembered reading about in fairy tales and books of fiction.  He’d been pumped full of sedatives on almost a daily basis, just to make it possible for someone to bring him food.

Now, though…now, it was like the life had been completely sucked out of him.  Now, all he did was talk about his dead brother, the still-fresh pain in his voice almost unbearable.  Your heart broke for him _every damn time_.

“He’s been in here for thirty years, and he still talks like his brother died yesterday.”  

“I know it’s hard, but sometimes, they just don’t get better.”

You nodded, your heart heavy as you headed down the hall.

 


End file.
